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Back in 2018, many saw Bulgaria’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union as a means of providing impetus to the European integration of the Western Balkans. The recent reignition of a decades-old dispute with North Macedonia over language and identity however, and the decision in November to block the start that country’s EU membership negotiations, marks a complete U-turn in Bulgaria’s foreign policy.
In Bulgaria, the country’s recent decision to block North Macedonia’s European Union accession talks has been perceived by many analysts as nothing more than a desperate and rather populist attempt by the ruling centre-right GERB party to deflect attention away from anti-corruption protests which have been an almost daily feature of life in the country since July.